Valerie Mahaffey is DEAD to me

Very sad. Valerie Mahaffey was so funny. Loved her in the mid-90s TV show, "The Powers That Be," also starring John Forsythe and Holland Taylor. Great show by Norman Lear.

Valerie Mahaffey (June 16, 1953 – May 30, 2025)

I always thought of her as TV’s version of Julie Hagerty.

Then she replaced Julie Hagerty on Women of the House as the SAME character and I thought “I guess someone else does , too.”

And her husband looks like a cross between David Thewlis and Kevin Sorbo.

Aww, I really liked her.

I loved her as the psycho with a crush on Joe on Wings. 3 of the funniest guest shots on television.

She should have had her own series.

This is a tough one.

She will have more time now to make papier mache hats

I’m quite saddened by this.

R7 is an imposter. I NEVER issue statements on celebrity deaths.

Oh, no!

R3 Oh, good. I'm glad it wasn't just me who got confused with the Valerie/Julie thing.

She was hysterical. Very underutilized.

The map of Ireland was stamped all over her mug. RIP.

I hope somebody makes a commemorative bust of her in papier mache.

R3 -- I always thought the exact same thing -- in fact, in one of my favorite TV comedies, Trial and Error, she seemed to appear in a minor, very funny, role; I was happy to see her. But then I looked at the cast and it turned out it was Julie Hagerty, not Valerie -- they morphed into the same persona.

Both very funny women. Valerie made every tv show she was in better.

The story is weird for “Women of the House”. Hagerty was cast but had another commitment so Mahaffey filled in until Hagerty was free and then Hagerty quit after two episodes and Mahaffey filled in one more time.

All that for a not very good show.

Trial & Error was so good, it's one of my favourite comedies as well! I was just thinking about it earlier this week when I read that Chenoweth got a pilot for another comedy docuseries.

Came here to type what R1 said.

I always liked when she'd show up on things. She's like one of four actress who I always enjoy seeing and always want to see more of along with Julie Haggerty, Molly Hagen and Joanna Gleason.

Tended to be typecast as "the brittle wife"

It's funny that she was paired with David Hyde Pierce on the John Forsythe sitcom some years before he was cast as 'Miles' on Frasier, because she's somewhat how I imagined the invisible 'Maris' character to look like.

Laugh out loud funny as Joe's stalker on "WINGS"

I'll never forget her reading of paper mache as "Papeyay Mashay"

talented lady.

Have you bitches watched every fucking television show from the last 50 years?

R20, I think she was the only person who could have played Maris. The producers of Frasier didn't originally intend for Maris never to be seen on camera, so I suspect they at least had her in mind for the role.

Mahaffey had one really good role on film only a few years ago. She was great in the Michelle Pfeiffer movie French Exit.

[quote]sitcom some years before he was cast as 'Miles' on Frasier

Oh, dear.

MILES was MY MAN.

She was wonderful in the movie French Exit starring MIchelle Pfeiffer

R10. I was overcome with grief, bitch.

R23

YES

R20 Funnily enough, David Hyde Pierce suggested she play Maris back when the character was going to be seen.

She still had my TAXES!!!!

She was aim a really good early Laa and Order SVU. Her 2nd husband was a Judge. He had been raping her daughter. She killed her daughter because the daughter “tantalized “ her new husband and screwed up her new marriage. She was wonderfully crazy /creepy.

I liked her - be with the angels now

[quote] She was aim a really good early Laa and Order SVU

Oh, dear. Have you had a stroke?

R29 but who played Maris when she wasn’t seen?

She wasn’t just nobody

I know R34 is a joke Rose post but I’ll answer. Maris wasn’t originally going to be an unseen character because the “Frasier” producers didn’t want to draw comparisons to Vera from “Cheers.” They were going to lull people into a false sense of complacency before revealing Maris unexpectedly.

But what ended up happening was the writers had so much fun coming up with more and more outrageous descriptions of her, it reached a point no one could play the part. Mahaffey would’ve made a great choice had they stuck with the original plan.

BITCH STOLE MY ACT!!!

I remember first seeing her in FRESNO, the nighttime soap spoof with Carol Burnett. And she was also good as the secretive mother whose teenage daughter was murdered in LAW & ORDER SVU.

Loved her in French Exit and on The Powers That Be.